This invention is used in the sport of lacrosse, which is considered the oldest team contact sport of North America. The sport of lacrosse is played with sticks used for catching, carrying, and throwing a ball into the opposing team's goal. Lacrosse sticks have a handle and a head. The head of the stick is a frame. Strung across the head frame with varying degrees of looseness and tension are flexible elements such as strings, thongs and/or netting material. Within the head frame, the thongs and/or netting material are typically strung either traditionally (a complex pattern of leather and nylon strings woven together) or in mesh (a piece of mesh material attached to the head by nylon strings) to create what is known as a pocket. According to the jargon of the sport, a ball in play will be held in the pocket. The pocket is an area of slack in the flexible elements. And the determining factors as to how each individual pocket throws (the degree up or down out of the pocket when the ball is released) is the friction imparted by the shooting strings and the tension of the web elements in the location of the shooting strings.
In the lexicon of the sport, the word “tension” does not carry the meaning that an engineer would use in the sense of a force being applied. Rather, players of the sport use the word “tension” to identify the amount of slack or excess length in a flexible element. The greater the tension means the less excess slack in comparison to the slack in the other flexible elements. Similarly the word “friction” as used by players has a meaning relating to ball release characteristics and not just the strict engineering term of resistance to relative motion between two bodies in contact.
In the act of throwing or shooting, the lacrosse stick is swung in an arc and the ball, which is initially located around the center of the pocket, begins to travel away from the center of the arc out of the pocket due to centrifugal force. While the ball is accelerating out of the pocket, it remains in constant contact with the pocket and the forces exerted when the ball passes over the shooting strings and the angle created by the shooting strings determines the degree up or down the ball will travel once released from the pocket. The greater the tension of the shooting strings, the greater the downward angle the ball will follow after hitting the strings. The lesser the tension, the greater the upward angle the ball will follow since there is not as much rebound surface redirecting it down. Similarly the friction of the playing ball surface in contact with the shooting strings and flexible elements of the stick head will also control the angle of ball release.
Most players of the sport use more than one shooting string in their stick head pocket. The reason for this is to provide a more fluent release from the stick head pocket. This is achieved by staggering the differences in tension throughout multiple shooting strings, where the first shooting string with which the ball comes in contact contains the least amount of tension among the shooting strings, and the amount of tension becomes gradually greater with each shooting string with which the ball comes in contact. This eliminates the abrupt release experienced when there is only one shooting string and the ball experiences a great amount of friction and tension all at once instead of small amounts of friction and tension gradually. A small amount of friction and tension gradually creates a smooth, fluid release most players of the sport prefer. However, every player is different and has his/her own personal preference as to how the ball is released from their pocket, so best release option, whether a smooth, gradual release or a hard, abrupt release remains up to each individual players taste. It is very difficult to create the perfect tension for your style of throwing/shooting, and even when the perfect tension is found, it is extremely difficult to maintain that tension over long periods of time.
Until now, the shooting string has been nothing more than continuous common string-like material with perhaps expansions in the string as identified by the prior invention of the inventor herein. Typically, the string was intricately interwoven into the pocket, and wound over itself repeatedly. This is not only very difficult, but creates the problem of permanence, making it extremely hard to add and remove the strings. In inserting or adjusting a shooting string, the degree of tension had to be guesstimated by hand, and, when the appropriate degree of tension was thought to be found, the string had to be interwoven and wound over itself repeatedly by using both hands while simultaneously holding the stick with some other part of the body, hoping to not have altered the tension in the process. The problem here is that since the player is guesstimating the tension, it becomes a trial and error process to find the perfect tension. In addition, once the player finds the perfect tension, it takes only weeks, days, and sometimes even hours before the tension changes causing wild throws.
There are many different reasons causing the change in tension. The main reason would probably be due to the weather. Lacrosse is an outdoor sport so the lacrosse sticks are exposed to nearly all forms of natural elements. The most common element would have to be rain. When the shooting strings become wet, they expand in size and are more susceptible to be stretched when force is applied to them. While playing the game of lacrosse, each player must catch and throw the ball numerous times. Each time these actions are performed, force is applied to the shooting strings casing them to stretch. Lesser but more frequent forces are created by the mere swinging of the stick. Conversely, exposure to heat, rising temperatures, and sunlight may cause the string to shrink. Once this happens, the tension in the shooting strings becomes distorted causing the ball to be released from the sticks pocket differently, ultimately resulting in throws/shots being very off target to no fault of the player, but by fault of the shooting strings.
Because the strings are intricately interwoven into the pocket and wound over itself repeatedly, there is a great length of string being used. Even a small percentage change in length can cause a multiplicative change in tension. Players use of a great deal of interwoven and wound over itself string in order to obtain bulk and friction in the pocket that will change the release angle.
When the shooting strings stretch or shrink, it is a very unpleasant process to correct this problem. If this should happen during a practice, a player is forced to call a timeout and be replaced. The player must go to the sideline and attempt many various tensions until the player finally finds the appropriate tension. Meanwhile, the player is missing practice.
Although the practice situation of shrunken or stretched strings is annoying, it may just be the best case scenario for a player's shooting strings to fail. For example, imagine playing in a championship game and with your team down by one with only seconds left in the game. The wear and tear of a full game's worth of applied forces to your shooting strings and varying weather conditions has caused the tension to change without your knowing it. The shooting string tensions have changed dramatically just as you become open mere feet in front of the opposition's goalkeeper. Your teammate delivers a perfect pass to you with three seconds left on the clock giving you the perfect opportunity to tie the game and send it into overtime. You wind up and deliver your shot; and you can see in your mind's eye the ball entering the goal before you even release it. Then, to your horror, you see the ball sailing away, completely off line from its intended target. Your heart drops as you realize what must have happened as you watch your shot travel into the parking lot and the opposition begins to celebrate. You blew it, or should I say, your shooting strings blew it. There is no worse feeling than wondering if that shot would have scored if your shooting strings had remained at the tension you were used to, the tension you were expecting when you took that final shot.